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SANICHAR 



THE WOLF-BOY OF INDIA 



THE TRUE STORY OF HIS 
LIFE IN THE SECUNDRA 
ORPHANAGE, AT AGRA, INDIA 



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ILLUSTRATED 



Published by G. C. FERRIS 
451 W. 24th St., New York City 






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THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
One Copy Received 

JUN. 3 1902 

Copyright entry 
CLASS 3-XXc. No. 

corr a. 



Copyrighted May, 1903, by 
G. C. Ferris, New York City 



PREFACE. 

Though the every day events of the world, 
through the medium of our daily papers, are 
made known to us almost as soon as they 
occur — so fast is civilization advancing by 
abolishing distances and surmounting difficul- 
ties by means of new inventions, thus bringing 
the uttermost parts of the earth within, one 
might be tempted to say, talking distance — 
yet there are a great many events, of minor 
importance mayhap, that occur daily and are 
never recorded. And in spite of civilization's 
advance there are still countries yet unvisited 
by the aggressive white man. 

While one might look to a spot like that for 
something unusual to occur, one would hardly 
look to a practically modern country for the 
same thing. 

There are at the present time localities in 
India never visited by the European, where a 
white face is still a curiosity. So it is not 



strange that the discovery of a wolf-boy in 
that country has not become more generally 
known to the world. 

Nevertheless, there was just such a boy, 
and his life-story, told in the following pages, 
is a strange one. 

The home of Sanichar, after his capture, 
where he passed the greater part of his life, 
was the Secundra Orphanage, in Agra, India. 
It was founded in 1838 by the Rev. J. J. 
Moore, and is situated in one of those num- 
erous and unnamed tombs near that of the 
celebrated Emperor, Akbar Shah. Its object 
is to take care of the native orphans, of whom 
there are many in the densely populated dis- 
tricts of India. 

The writer of this sketch was animated by 
the thought that the story might prove attract- 
ive and would serve the purpose of recording 
the fact that there was actually a wolf -boy, and 
he is indebted for the greater part of his infor- 
mation to the Secundra Orphanage paper, pub- 
lished in behalf of the orphanage by the Rev. 
C. S. Valentine, LL.D, F.R.C.S.E. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter I. Introductory . . .11 

Chapter II. Discovery of Sanichar, 
the Wolf-boy of Sec- 

UNDRA . . 17 

Chapter III. General Description . 25 
Chapter IV. His Life and Death . 35 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

I. In the latter part of his life . 5 

II. Sanichar in his Favorite Garb 

and Position . . . .25 

III. A Study of His Face ... 35 



\S 



SANICHAR, THE WOLF-BOY 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory. 

Among the prettiest tales and tradi- 
tions which we have in our possession, 
perhaps those telling of the friendships 
of children and animals attract us the 
most. Somehow, there seems to be an 
added fascination to a story in which 
human beings and animals are associ- 
ated and bound together with what 
might almost be called family ties. It 
is not an uncommon thing for people 
to get so attached to their pets that 
they are treated and looked after as 
members of the family. Why, then, 



should it be strange that an animal in 
whom the mother love is pregnant, 
should not, too, adopt the young of 
another animal, or even a human being, 
to take the place of its own lost brood, 
in order that it may have that on which 
it can lavish its love. But when crea- 
tures of entirely different temperament 
and disposition voluntarily come to- 
gether and live in peace, yes, even 
manifesting affection for each other, 
it is so much out of the ordinary that 
we cannot help but be attracted by it. 
And, though we may sometimes doubt 
the truth of the tales, yet as we liked 
to listen to them in our childhood days, 
so we in turn like to repeat them to 
our children, and thus preserve them 
from being lost. The story of Romulus 
and Remus, the founders of that once 



13 

powerful city of Rome, being rescued 
from starvation and nursed through 
their babyhood by a she-wolf, is merely 
such a tale, probably with no founda- 
tion on fact, yet it has been preserved 
for hundreds of years by that peculiar 
fascination which hangs around such 
stories. As an example of this, and 
one which proves beyond doubt the 
truth of the assertion, we have only to 
mention the " Tales of the Jungle," by 
Rudyard Kipling, which describes the 
life of the wolf-boy Mowgli. What 
enthusiasm they did create when first 
they came to the notice of the reading 
public ! People did not question their 
truth ; they were interested in the story, 
and only asked for more. 

Kipling has woven such a web of 
romance around the life of the wolf- 



14 

boy, Mowgli, in his famous tales of the 
jungle, that it seems a pity to destroy 
any part of it. The finding by the wolf 
mother of the baby in the cave, the 
discussion as to what should be done 
with it, and finally the decision to adopt 
and bring it up as one of its own, 
touches a responsive cord in us all. 
The wonderful way in which the baby 
grew up among its savage playmates 
into a boy, and from a boy into a man, 
living in communion with Nature and 
reveling in the friendships of all ani- 
mals, recognized master from the power 
of his human eyes, yet loved by his 
friends and feared by his enemies, inter- 
ests us greatly. No writer has ever 
given the world so realistic a picture, 
nor so true, of the jungle life in India, 
as has Kipling. As the story pro- 



i5 

gresses, Mowgli's savage friends at last 
perceive that the man nature in him is 
asserting itself, and that a day would 
surely come when he would realize the 
fact that he should have to leave the 
jungle and live as other men do. This 
they communicate sadly to Mowgli, but 
he strongly denies any such feeling: 
rather any day life among the jungle 
people, who had so long befriended him, 
than among his kin, who had more than 
once turned their backs on him. Then 
at last the return to that life that had 
been a stranger to him, how his loyalty 
to his old friends remained to the end, 
is a word picture rarely equaled. 

This, then, is the story that we have 
read and enjoyed. But there were a 
few people who were not only inter- 
ested, but had their curiosity aroused 



i6 

by the reading, and would have liked to 
know if there ever had been a real wolf- 
boy. We have heard so much of them 
in story that the truth would be very 
interesting, and it is for these few that 
the following facts have been gathered. 
As has already been said, it seems a 
pity that fact cannot bear out these 
pretty tales in all their details, for 
the story of the wolf -boy is not merely 
a tradition which the master hand has 
drawn upon for his, picture, but it is a 
fact — a fact, too, which corroborates 
in many particulars the story with 
which we are familiar. At the same 
time there is as great a dissimilarity 
as could be possible under the circum- 
stances. In order that this may be 
plain, let us familiarize ourselves with 
the story of the real wolf -boy. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Discovery. 

And ever and anon the wolf would steal 
The children and devour, but now and then, 
Her own brood lost or dead, lent her fierce teat 
To human sucklings ; and the children, housed 
In her foul den, there at their meat would 

growl 
And mock their foster-mother on four feet, 
Till, straighten'd, they grew up to wolf-like 

men, 
Worse then the wolves. 

" Idyls of the King." — Tennyson. 

A great part of India is covered with 
almost impenetrable jungles, which 
afford refuge for all manner of wild 
beasts, reptiles and poisonous insects, 
that wage a constant war against man 
at every opportunity and occasion. A 



i8 

look at the yearly death list of India 
impresses one at first with its great 
length, and a further perusal of the 
figures of those whose deaths have been 
caused by the bites of poisonous snakes 
and wild animals is appalling. One is 
frightened by the possibilities of sud- 
den death when one first sees and hears 
of it, but after one has been in the 
country and has become acclimatized 
(which, by the way, is one of the dan- 
gers one has to pass through, and keep 
on undergoing, it seems, during the 
length of one's stay), the figures do not 
appal so much, and the fear one first 
entertained subsides, though it leaves 
one cautious at all times. 

India is so densely populated that if 
it was not for the large death list, 
helped along some years by the famine 



x 9 

and plague, people would have no place 
to live, and the productive area would 
be cut down and leave the country in 
worse straits than ever before. 

However, the economic question is 
not the subject of this article, and it 
must be left to other heads to solve. 

The government of India, however, 
recognizes that in the interest of hu- 
manity a check must be put to the 
ravages of the wild animals, and it 
offers a bounty of between five to fifty 
rupees for the head of every man-killing 
animal. 

Away up in the northwest provinces 
of India the jungles are extraordinar- 
ily thick and wild, teeming with life 
of every kind, and it is the custom of 
the native hunters, or shikaris, to go 
hunting in large bands, greater safety 



being one of the considerations, and 
ability to beat successfully, being 
another. 

According to this custom, early in 
the year 1867 a large band of shikaris 
from Bulandshahr organized themselves 
into a hunting party and started away 
into the jungle for several weeks' hunt. 
Fortune had not favored them, and the 
bag was not at all satisfactory. One 
day, however, the party, having formed 
in a line, commenced to beat towards a 
clearing, the location of which they 
were cognizant, hoping to drive some- 
thing before them into it and then 
shoot it. The line was not well kept, 
and the only thing they drove before 
them was a lone gray wolf, which, 
surprised by the sudden appearance 
of the party, immediately took to 



flight up a rocky, rising piece of brush, 
followed hotly by the entire party. 
Having reached the top, the wolf 
rushed around a huge bowlder lying 
on the very summit of the hillock, and 
uttering a wailing cry, disappeared a 
short distance away in a cave. This 
curious action of the beast directed the 
party's attention to the bowlder, and 
then to a most odd looking animal 
seated atop of it. At the plaintive cry 
of the wolf it arose on its hind legs, 
when, seeing the people rushing toward 
itself, it dropped back on all fours, 
scrambled off the rock, and hurried 
after the wolf into the inmost recesses 
of the cave. At the mouth of it a con- 
sultation was held among the puzzled 
natives as to the character of the 
strange thing and as to their mode of 



22 

procedure. Some, who in leading the 
chase had caught a good glimpse of it, 
declared that it was a man ; but others 
argued that it was only a strange ani- 
mal ; some, evidently frightened, under 
cover of religious zeal counseled leav- 
ing it alone, for fear of offending their 
gods ; others, more courageous, argued 
to the contrary, and soon the natives 
had worked themselves up to such a 
pitch of superstitious fear that none of 
them dared to solve the mystery. At 
last they resolved to give up the hunt- 
ing tour long enough to get back to 
town and report their find to the author- 
ities. In this manner it came to the 
ears of the magistrate of Bulandshahr, 
a sensible and practical old man, who 
advised them to go back and capture 
the strange thing and ascertain what it 



23 

was, man or beast, instructing them 
to start a smudge fire at the mouth of 
the cave, and thus smoke out the crea- 
ture, and capture it as it attempted to 
escape. 

Following these instructions, a large 
party was organized, which proceeded 
to the place where the thing was last 
seen. When they had satisfied them- 
selves that it was in the cave, a fire 
was kindled and the smoke allowed to 
penetrate to the inmost recesses. Sta- 
tioned all around the entrance were 
the men, each intent on helping to cap- 
ture the thing when it was forced out 
of the cave, yet secretly afraid of this 
encounter with the unknown animal, 
for the natives of India are an intensely 
superstitious people. Suddenly out 
rushed the wolf, and following imme- 



24 

diately behind came the thing. The 
wolf was allowed to get away, but the 
whole party threw themselves on the 
latter. A terrible struggle ensued, 
during which several natives were 
severely bitten and scratched. What- 
ever the creature was, it was putting 
up a terrible fight. Yet there could be 
but one outcome to such an unequal 
struggle, and soon the thing lay cap- 
tured; not an animal, but a man; no, 
not a man, but a mere boy, foaming 
and furious, snarling and snapping at 
its captors like a beast at bay. His 
captors were astounded. Was this little 
hairy thing, that had required the 
united strength of a dozen men to cap- 
ture, only a child ? 







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CHAPTER III. 
Description. 

The Rev. C. S. Valentine, LL.D., of 
the Agra Medical Missionary Training 
Institute, who has made quite a study 
of the boy, speaks in wonder of the 
discovery as follows: 

"Wonderful, was it not? Here in 
an unfrequented jungle, running on 
all fours, covered with filth and vermin, 
his face partially hidden by long matted 
hair, and having no companion save 
the wolf, and no home save the wolf's 
den, was a boy, who could not, at the 
time, have been more than seven or 
eight years of age. It was the story 
of the infant days of Romulus and 
Remus stripped of the fabulous and 



26 

converted into fact. How the boy was 
brought into this state of things and 
his life preserved among wild, man- 
eating animals, are questions which it 
would probably be futile to discuss; 
but, with such facts before us, the posi- 
tion occupied by those who accept the 
assertions of Professor Huxley and 
others regarding the impossibility of 
the preservation of Daniel in the den 
of lions must be looked upon as utterly 
untenable. For could not the same 
God who saved this boy's life in the 
wolf's den, and preserved him during 
his early years, when he had only wild 
animals as companions, save and pre- 
serve the life of Daniel as described in 
the volume of the Book? " 

The return of the hunting party was 
like a triumphal march. Everybody 



27 

wanted to see the boy who had lived 
among - wolves ; commented on his fierce 
and wild appearance, tried to feed 
him, but he sullenly would have 
nothing to do with them — in fact, tried 
to bite the hands which feed him. The 
shikaris came in for a great share of 
praise for their bravery, which, were it 
not that the boy needed constant atten- 
tion to keep him from escaping or 
harming some one, might have turned 
their heads. So it was that they came 
once more before the same magistrate, 
upon whose advice the natives took the 
boy to the Secundra Orphanage at Agra 
and turned him over to the care of the 
missionaries. The orphanage is situ- 
ated in one of those numerous tombs 
which abound in India, and is located 
near that of the famous Emperor Akbar 



28 

Shah, the Taj Mahal, that beautiful 
example of Indian architecture which 
is one of the sights of the world. 

The missionaries gladly accepted the 
new charge, with the hope that they 
would be able to educate him to a 
prominent place in the world. One of 
the first duties which they felt called 
upon to pay him after his arrival was 
that of giving him a suitable name. 
After much discussion it was finally 
decided that, as he was brought into 
the orphanage on Saturday, February 
4th, to call him after that day, Sanichar, 
the vernacular for Saturday. No doubt 
they had in mind the story of Robinson 
Crusoe when doing this. 

The pathetic side of the life of Sani- 
char began at this time. Life among 
the wolves had almost destroyed his 



2 9 

sense of hearing ; his mind had remained 
undeveloped so long that, coupled with 
deafness, it made him practically an 
idiot. He had none of those gentler 
characteristics ascribed to Kipling's 
Mowgli, and it was a long time before 
he became accustomed to his new mode 
of life. When the missionaries first 
attempted to put clothes on the boy he 
raged like a wild animal, ripped them 
off, tore them to shreds, and scattered 
them all over the building; food placed 
before him at meal times he gobbled 
up, and meat and bones he would gnaw 
and worry at with his teeth like a car- 
nivorous animal. But under the en- 
forced discipline used, and as kindly 
pressure was brought to bear on him, 
he grew docile and became partially 
accustomed to the new order of things. 



3° 

When he first arrived, he walked on all 
fours like an animal. This was per- 
fectly natural, having up to this time 
spent all his life among four-footed 
companions. But the curious feature 
of it was, that he did not walk on hands 
and knees, as children do before they 
learn to walk, but on his elbows and 
knees, and this accounts for his pecu- 
liarly distorted arms and humped-up 
shoulders. 

Probably in running with the wolves 
he found he could be surer-footed with 
his forearm flat on the ground than on 
his wrists, which were probably rather 
weak. So his first accomplishment on 
entering his new life was to learn to 
walk as do other men. One thing, 
however, he never mastered — the art of 
eating- with fork and knife. He could 



3i 

not be induced to eat in any but the 
native fashion — with hands and fingers. 
Sanichar is very vividly and accu- 
rately described by Dr. Valentine. ' 'At 
the present time," he says, "Sanichar 
must be about thirty-two years of age, 
though he looks older. His head is 
small, his brow uncommonly low and 
contracted, while his eyes, in propor- 
tion to his head and face, are large and 
of a grayish color, restless and squint- 
ing. He has a small, thin, wrinkled 
face on which are one or two large 
cicatrices — marks, no doubt, of what 
have been severe bites. These are also 
found on other parts of his body, and 
are evident signs of the rough treat- 
ment to which he was, involuntarily, 
subjected when living in the cave with 
his unamiable companions. His height, 



32 

when he stands erect, is 5 feet and 2 
inches. In walking, he lifts his feet 
like one wading through wet grass, and 
when he moves along the whole muscles 
of his body seem to be undergoing a 
series of jerks, while his arms are 
thrown about in such a manner as to 
convey the impression that they materi- 
ally assist him in his progress. His 
head is also continually in motion, turn- 
ing from side to side with great rapid- 
ity, while his eyes, which have at all 
times a hungry appearance, glare, as 
if he expected an attack from some 
unseen enemy. When viewed from 
behind as he walks, or when he stands 
in front of . you with his head inclined 
to one side, rolling his large gray eyes, 
beating upon his stomach to show that 
he is hungry, or imitating the smoking 



33 

of a cigar, of which he is extremely 
fond, grinning and uttering inarticulate 
and nonunderstandable sounds, he cer- 
tainly does present a strange appear- 
ance. Still, I think, visitors are at 
first disappointed with him, having ex- 
pected to find him bearing a greater 
resemblance to the lower creation than 
he really does. In fact, people who 
visit him for the first time expect to 
see a wolf who has spent his early years 
among boys, rather than a boy whose 
infancy was spent among wolves." 

His apparent idiocy at the time of 
his capture was a great bar to his edu- 
cation. His deafness made him prac- 
tically dumb, for they had no advanced 
methods in the orphanage for teaching 
speech to the deaf as we have in use in 
this country. Notwithstanding this, 

•L.ofC. 



34 

he was intelligent, paradoxical as it 
may seem, for Dr. Valentine was able 
to make him understand almost any- 
thing by the use of sign language ; 
make him ' ' sit, stand, walk, run, and 
(what is often a difficult matter among 
those who have been cradled and trained 
in fairly good society) get him to keep 
perfectly still in front of a camera." 



CHAPTER IV. 
His Life and Death. 

Held back by his infirmity, he was 
never able to make many friends, 
though those for whom he took a liking 
were much affected by his attentions, 
and never regretted his friendship. 

An ungovernable temper made him 
a terror among the boys and men, and 
many of them still bear evidences of 
wild fights with him. His early savage 
life held its influence over him, and the 
wild animal desire to strike back to kill 
was inoculated into his blood. As he 
grew older he naturally became more 
and more like his fellow men, but 
never lost all of his natural animal 
instincts. 



30 

Unable to go out into the world to 
earn his living, the kind missionaries 
gave him a welcome home in the 
orphanage, where he stayed through 
his lifetime. 

Though Sanichar's life was so devoid 
of the usual number of interesting inci- 
dents which go to fill up every man's 
life, there was at least one which 
showed in a most beautiful manner 
that the years of patient labor spent by 
the missionaries had not been alto- 
gether in vain. One of the boys in 
the orphanage to whom Sanichar had 
taken a strange liking, one day was 
taken sick and after a short illness died. 
When Sanichar, who had watched faith- 
fully at his friend's bedside, understood 
that the spirit of his playmate had gone 
forever, he pointed his finger first at 



37 

himself, then at the dead body, and 
then toward the sky, as if to say that 
when he died he too would go to heaven 
and meet his friend there once more. 
The missionaries were very much 
touched at this evident understanding 
of their years of teaching of Christian 
truth and felt amply rewarded for hav- 
ing thus spent them. It was not long 
after this that Sanichar fell sick, from 
general physical debility, and soon fol- 
lowed his friend on the long, unknown 
journey. 

When we compare the life of the real 
wolf -boy with that of Mowgli, the actual 
seems to suffer by the comparison. 
Only in the one incident just related 
does the real show any of the higher 
human characteristics found in the lat- 
ter, which is a beautiful romance from 



38 

the beginning to the end. Thus does 
fact rudely shatter the beautiful picture 
which we have so associated with the 
story of the wolf-boy. This uncouth 
and ugly man suffers greatly when 
compared with the one we are accus- 
tomed to think of. Instead of the intel- 
ligent mind there was only the idiot's, 
dumb except for inarticulate utterances, 
ungainly and squint-eyed, and in fact 
a man with whom no one would wil- 
lingly associate as a companion, unless 
it were for the purpose of making a 
scientific study into his condition, or 
from a Christian, charitable standpoint, 
as did the missionaries. Yet the story 
of Sanichar does not lose any of its 
attractiveness from the fact of his lack- 
ing those gentler features attributed 
to the fictitious. 



39 



We feel sorry for the babe which, if 
it had had the same opportunity as 
others, might have proved himself a 
leader among his fellow men : or on the 
contrary, living in obscurity, might 
never have been heard of, but, con- 
demned by the strange hand of Provi- 
dence to live out of the ordained path 
of nature, has put him before the eyes 
of many. As an ordinary man he 
would have done his duty unknown 
and unnoticed, but Providence had 
some object, no doubt, in doing this. 
What it teaches is difficult to conjec- 
ture, but it brings home to us the truth 
of the poet's lines : 

' ' Nothing useless here below, 
Each thing in its place is best, 
And what seems but idle show 
Strengthens and supports the rest." 



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